More than a decade after Little Rock killing, son gets 23 years in father's stabbing death

Harold Charles Jr., 39
Harold Charles Jr., 39

More than a decade after his father's killing and seven years after confessing to being responsible, a Little Rock man was sentenced Thursday to 23 years in prison.

Harold Charles Jr., 39, was initially charged with capital murder in the death of his father, Harold Charles Sr., 45, who was believed to have died Thanksgiving Day in 2000. The younger Charles was 23 at the time of the killing.

Before Pulaski County Judge Leon Johnson on Thursday, Charles Jr. received 17 years on a lesser first-degree murder charge and six years for terroristic threatening as part of a negotiated plea deal. The sentences are to run consecutively.

Johnson also ordered him to serve a 13-year suspended sentence.

Family members were present during Thursday’s plea hearing, including Charles Sr.’s sister and brother.

Both told the court that their nephew had showed remorse for his actions and argued that the “punishment doesn’t fit the crime," referring to Charles Jr.’s parole eligibility in five years because of jail credits.

Once Johnson explained the terms and that parole eligibility was out of his control, Charles Sr.’s brother, Larry, told the judge that he had gained a better understanding of the sentence.

Charles Sr. was found by his ex-wife Nov. 25, 2000, stabbed to death on the living room floor of his home on Little Rock's south side. He was believed to have died two days before, Thanksgiving Day.

Nine years later, Charles Jr. blurted out that he had killed his father during a February 2009 argument with his mother, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette previously reported. Officers had arrived at the time and heard the admission.

Charles confessed again to the killing during an interview at police headquarters, telling investigators that he’d planned to kill his father as a way to make amends.

Since his July 2009 arrest, Charles Jr. had been in custody — either in jail or at the State Hospital.

In November 2009, doctors diagnosed Charles as mentally ill and found him to be “actively psychotic” because of an interview in which he appeared incoherent.

He was committed to the State Hospital until doctors determined in October 2010 that he had been restored to sanity.

By 2012, Charles, who was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, had gone through five mental evaluations.

Read Friday’s Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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